Tataki Fishing
March 28, 2025
Opening pikes
May 19, 2025
Smart and suspicious
Text and photographs by Marco Altamura
In this strange early spring, after noting with a few outings the conditions not suitable for achieving catches in flowing waters, I turned to light spinning in lake waters in search of one of the most suspicious and guarded fish our inland waters can boast: the chub.
Many homegrown spinners immediately dismiss the issue by asserting that the chub is not a noble fish and does not deserve their attention! The truth is quite different: the challenge to this wily cyprinid by spinning represents one of the most arduous tests that a pitcher can face.
Never more than in this case should the equipment be composed of a "combo" perfect in every element. I personally use a rod of length mt 2.40 with an effective power range identified in the range gr 5/15 to which I combine a reel size 2500/3000 loaded with an excellent super braided line such as Asso 8XPE Micro Braid of thickness mm 0.12 to the top of which I attach with a Double Albright knot an approximately one-meter piece of Asso Super Fluorocarbon 0.18/0.20 mm thick. This braid (the Micro Braid), thanks to its near-zero elongation and abrasion-resistance qualities, allows safe ferreting even at great distances, and the fluorine terminal guarantees absolute strength and invisibility in the water, much appreciated when we face such a suspicious fish.
As an artificial I use only 9-cm lipless minnow with sinking trim and 10-gr silicone shad.
In this spinning to the "smarty-pants" we can be helped by the periodic breezes that often blow from the west over our great pre-Alpine basins of northern Italy, confounding our pitfalls a little and allowing us to make noteworthy catches that, in these wide spaces, can easily exceed 2 kilograms in weight.
The fishing action allows us to inspect the first layers of the water column with slow and steady retrieves counterbalanced by decisive and almost brutal attacks by these extraordinary predators that do not hesitate to gorge our artificials and then enact, at least in the first moments, an adrenaline-fueled combat also strong from the considerable weight. I recommend trying our hand at this wily fish because if we are right in this particular type of light-spinning, we will be able to face as winners all other challenges with homegrown predators.